Return to Terra
by Wednesday1990
Summary: When Peter learns about Thanos's failed invasion, the Guardians go to Earth in order to warn them about what's been going on with the rest of the Galaxy.
1. Wait, What?

"Wait, what?"

Peter stared, unblinking, at Gamora. He couldn't quite process what she had just told him. "What does Thanos want with Terra?"

"You truly did not know?" Gamora asked, her eyebrows contracted in confusion. "It has been more than two standard Terran years. You have not heard about the failed invasion?"

"What? No! If I had heard about **that,** don't you think I would have, I don't know, done something about it?" Peter said incredulously, his hands waving in the air nonsensically.

"Well, I dunno, Peter," Rocket chimed in from where he was sitting off to the side, tinkering with one of his many projects. "It's not like you seem to care about your home much. I mean, the rest of us? Don't really have a home to go back to, you know? You could have gone any time you wanted."

"Wha- that's not true!" Peter huffed, indignant. "I only got my ship about a year ago. And just in case you forgot, I was **abducted** by the ravagers when I was eight. They weren't about to let me go back."

"But you have had the Milano for a year," Drax tried to point out reasonably. "Why did you not try to return home as soon as you acquired your ship?"

Peter let out a frustrated squawk, and ran his hands through his hair with harsh, jerky movements.

"You know what- that's not the- nevermind that! I have my reasons! Just because I didn't immediately go back the first time I had the chance doesn't mean I don't care!"

"But you did not even try and seek out information?" Gamora questioned. "I thought it was well known event. Half of the Chitauri's forces were wiped out by Terra's counterstrike."

"What, really?" Peter stopped moving for a second to stare again. "Wow, I was not expecting that."

"What d'ya really expect Gamora?" Rocket drawled smirking at the confused half-Terran. "Quill here didn't even know who you were. Do you really think he keeps up with politics?"

"Ahhh," Gamora said with sudden understanding, much to Peter's embarrassment. "You are right. He is surprisingly ignorant of many things."

"You know what? Forget you guys," Peter said, turning around and climbing the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Gamora asked, an eyebrow raised. "I just told you that Thanos has targeted your home planet."

""We're changing course for Terra," Peter said, pausing halfway up the stairs, not bothering to turn back.

"Wha? What for?" Rocket said, dropping his project with a worrying amount of force considering it's probably destructive consequences. "Why are we going to that backwater? They took care of themselves just fine! And the Chitauri are no pushovers."

"They don't know about Thanos," Peter said, finally turning to look back at them, his face suddenly more serious than they'd ever seen it. "They don't know about anything that's been happening out here with the infinity stones or the Kree. We have to warn them. If Ronan could have wiped out Xandar by himself, what could Thanos do?"

Gamora, Drax, and Rocket were quiet. They knew exactly what could happen. Ronan was child's play compared to the Mad Titan, and they all knew.

"This isn't just about me going back to Terra. I'm not even sure if I want to," Peter admitted, staring off into space. "I left when I was a kid. It's been **twenty-six years**. That's way more than half my life so far.

"My mother died. My family won't know me. I'm not even fully Terran. But... we're the Guardians of the Galaxy now. Last time I checked, Terra was a part of it. And if they're next on Thanos's list, and if they've got the power to strike back against an invading force like the Chitauri, which even I've heard of thanks-very-much Rocket, then they deserve to be kept in the loop."

Peter stared each one of them in the eye.

"So we're going to Terra. Buckle up."

...

"Why would we buckle up?" Drax turned and asked Gamora. "We do not need to do so unless descending into a planet's atmosphere."

Rocket groaned and dropped his head into his hands.


	2. Vacation, Anyone?

Tony Stark was sitting out on the roof of the Avengers Tower, beach chair out, bermuda shorts and t-shirt on, and drink in hand.

"Ahh," he said as he took a sip of his whiskey. Perhaps not the best vacation drink, but there was nothing wrong with a classic. Granted, his 'vacation' was a much as he ever got. About an hour. Maybe. At least he brought a friend this time. He turned his head and peered over his sunglasses to look at his newest stable-ish relationship, Bruce Banner.

"Hey, Brucey, you'd better drink that before it melts," Tony prompted as he took another nice long sip out of his extra large glass.

Bruce snorted a little, waking up from his nap for the third time in as many minutes, and he groped for his glass of lemonade. Tony had laughed at the idea of sobriety, but Bruce made a convincing argument.

"Ugh," Bruce said as he mouthed at the straw sticking out of his fancy glass.

"Only thirty more minutes," Tony reminded him.

"Don't say that," Bruce sighed. "This is the first real break I've gotten in the past... I'm not sure when."

Tony giggled as he leaned back in his chair to enjoy some more of the delightfully mild summer rays.

"Sir."

"Not now, Jarvis," Tony warned. "Thirty minutes."

"Unfortunately, sir, this is rather urgent."

"Thirty minutes."

"It's Agent Romanov, sir, she's requesting to speak with you immediately. She says it's very important."

"Unless someone is about to die in the span of thirty minutes, it can wait. Mute."

"Si-"

Tony could practically feel the indignation coming from his AI, but it wasn't often he and Bruce got the chance to take a break, especially after the whole SHIELD and HYDRA fiasco. Jarvis and 'Agent' Romanov would just have to deal.

"Thought you might say that, Stark."

Tony jumped in his seat, barely managing to keep a hold on his drink.

"Natasha! Uh, kind of busy. Come back later."

The red-haired assassin simply raised an eyebrow, crossed her arms over her own designer t-shirt, and looked pointedly over at the lightly snoring physicist sitting next to Tony.

"Damnit, Bruce," Tony muttered, narrowing his eyes at his supremely unhelpful friend.

"You're going to want to see this," Natasha promised. "Just an hour ago, NASA picked up a transmission."

"Uh, space stuff? That's not really my-"

"The transmission," Natasha continued, staring Tony down looking largely unimpressed at the interruptions. "Was coming from just within Earth's orbit. A ship, it sounds like, asking for permission to land and talk to someone."

Tony blinked at the red-haired ex-assassin, and even Bruce regained consciousness.

"Wai- what?" Bruce yawned, rubbing at his face. "Did you just say- are these aliens?"

Natasha looked uncomfortable, pursing her lips and looking down at the ground.

"Well, they have to be, right?" Tony said, finally sitting up. "Not-aliens wouldn't ask for permission to land and speak to our leader."

"But they must have been speaking English?" Bruce pointed out to Tony before looking to Natasha. "Aliens don't speak English."

"You're forgetting our good friend Thor," Tony said, hefting himself up to his feet. "The big question is, why come to us with this? Is Area 51 also on vacation?"

"Normally it would be SHIELD handling this kind of situation," Natasha admitted. "But things being as they are..."

"The Avengers is all they've got," Tony finished grimly.

Natasha nodded, and Bruce gingerly pulled himself to his feet as well. Tony smacked his hands, causing the two, more-uptight occupants of the tower's roof to flinch at the sudden noise.

"Okay, well, vacation's over. Let's go talk to ET," Tony proclaimed. "And get Thor on the line. This should be his schtick, shouldn't it?"


	3. Just for the Record

"I'm telling you guys, this is a mistake," Rocket bitched from his seat, furry arms crossed as he stared down at the blue, green, and white swirling orb below them.

"Rocket," Peter sighed from the pilot's seat. "Shut up. It's only been an hour. They're not exactly used to outside visitors."

"And the one's they have had were hostile," Gamora chimed in from the back.

"Exactly," Peter nodded in her direction. "Let's just give them the time they need."

The frequency they had set up with the Terran Space Station suddenly crackled, and everyone perked up in their seats.

"Uh, Milano? This is the International Space Station. You have permission to land in the Stark New York Private Air Strip, where you will be received. Uh, do you need directions?"

"Nope, just some longitude/latitude coordinates will be fine, thanks," Peter told them.

"Um, your welcome."

Rocket sniggered at the dazed and confused tone of voice. Peter shushed him while he programmed the coordinates the guy was telling them hesitantly. Very hesitantly.

"Hey thanks again! Uh, didn't catch your name?"

"This is..um, this is Robert. Robert Langsley."

"Hi, Robert. I'm Peter. Also known as Star Lord. It's been nice talking to you."

"Right."

And Peter cut off the transmission.

"Okay, everybody ready?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been ready for over an hour," Rocket scowled as he tightened his seatbelt. "Let's just get this over with. And just for the record, I think this is a terrible idea."

"I do not," Gamora said approvingly. "It is very noble to go out of our way to warn them."

"I am Groot!"

"Yeah, no one asked you," Rocket grumbled.

A loud snore from the last seat startled the four other Guardians and they all turned to stare at their last member. Peter sighed again.

"Whatever," Peter mumbled as he directed the ship toward Air Strip or where ever they were going. "Let's just get in and out as quick as we can."

"What? We're not going to go sight-seeing?" Rocket snarked. "I always wanted to see how primitive civilizations chug along."

Drax snorted awake at Peter's scream of frustration and wondered what he missed this time.

* * *

Tony was fidgeting in his suit and tie, looking out over the tarmac. Normally this wasn't the position he found himself in. Usually, it was everyone else that waited for his spectacular arrival and not the other way around. But Tony supposed that he could tolerate waiting on the first aliens to step down on Earth. Well, the first invited aliens. Thor and the Chitauri had been surprise visits.

"What do you think?" Bruce said from next to him. Bruce was awkwardly fingering the cuff links that Tony had forced him to wear.

"Hmmm?" Tony said, pretending to be much more calm than he actually was. "What do I think about what, honeybuns?"

Bruce snickered a little at the nickname and at the confused side-glances they got from the surrounding agents. Well, Bruce assumed they were agents of some sort who were previously employed by SHIELD. Technically they were Tony's personal task force now, but you could tell they were new by the lack of Tony tolerance.

"About- I dunno, making first contact?" Bruce shrugged.

"Well, seeing as I already made first contact during our surprise alien invasion with a nuke, I figure things can only get better, really," Tony said wryly.

Bruce considered that and shrugged. "You may have a point."

"Oh, I know I do."

Bruce chuckled a little, but continued to fiddle with cuff links, clearly not assured about their second, hopefully less violent, first contact.

"It's not like they promised in Star Trek is it?"

"What? Like, the aliens or the future?" Tony asked, thinking back to the old 60s Trek.

"Both, I guess," Bruce said. "Definitely not as philosophical. More, bang bang, action."

"Yeah, so far it's been more like a B-list action flick and not so much solving philosophical, science-fictionesque problems," Tony admitted. "But hey! These ones gave us a call. Very poilte. Maybe we shouldn't give up on Star Trek just yet."

"If you say so..." Bruce quieted down when he saw a speck in the distance getting larger. It... probably wasn't a spaceship. Probably.

* * *

"Okay, listen up," Peter said, as he eased up on the acceleration. "No guns, no knives, no threats. Earth isn't exactly used to aliens, and if they just fought back an invasion, they're probably going to be a little wary. So, let me do the talking."

"Pfft, whatever," Rocket said from the seat next to him, his arms crossed and expression surly. "I didn't even want to come to your stupid backwater planet. If you're going to rude, I might as well just stay on the ship."

"Uhhhh..." Peter wasn't sure if that was a good idea, thinking back to all the alien movies he'd watched as a kid. They might as well introduce everyone at the same time and make sure there weren't any surprises. He was pretty sure that you didn't want to surprise a paranoid Earth government.

"We should stick together," Gamora said to Peter's eternal thanks. "They have no reason to attack us, but no reason to trust us either. We shouldn't allow them to separate us."

"Hmmm," Drax rumbled from the very back. "You said this is a planet of outlaws, did you not? Are you sure we should not bring our weapons? Perhaps they will think us weak."

"I- ugh," Peter stumbled explaining this one. He knew that would come back to bite him in the ass. Damn him and his complete inability to not posture. "There are a lot of outlaws on Earth, but we're not dealing with them. We're dealing with the government. Think of Nova Corps except more paranoid."

"Oh great, this is just getting better and better," Rocket groaned, rubbing at his eyes. "So basically we can expect to be thrown in another Kyln because we haven't saved these baldies from some world-destroying megalomaniac. Great. Well, this time I'm leaving you there, Quill."

"No one's getting arrested!" Peter said, looking back to glare at each of them. Except for baby Groot who was swaying cheerfully in the pot sitting on Drax's lap. "Just don't do anything illegal."

"What, they can't have the same laws as the Xandarians," Rocket argued. "I'm sure they'll agree that possession is nine-tenths of the law. I mean, that's what you always say right?"

Peter's screech of frustration echoed in the cramped cockpit.

"Behave on Terra as you would on Xandar," Gamora said diplomatically. "We should follow Peter's lead here. It is his home planet."

"Thank you again, Gamora!" Peter praised her. "See, this is why she's allowed to speak when we get down there."

"Whatever," Rocket grumbled, turning sulky again. "Let's just get this over with."


	4. Well I Wasn't Expecting This

"Okay, I can honestly say I wasn't expecting this."

Tony eye-balled the supposed spaceship in front of them, and shook his hand in its general blue-orange direction.

"It looks kind of like a military jet... I think," Bruce said, squinting at the eyesore on the tarmac. "You don't think someone's playing a joke on us, do you?"

"What, you think NASA is pranking us?" Tony snarked. "Even if they are, I don't think our dear assassin knows the meaning of fun."

Tony pointed a thumb at the stony-faced redhead standing next to the black van behind them.

"I guess," Bruce said. "But if someone dressed up as Luke Skywalker comes out..."

"Unleash the Hulk," Tony said, completely seriously.

"That's not funny, Tony."

"It's kind of funny."

"Will you two shut up?" Natasha said from directly behind them, making the two older scientists jump. "The ship's opening up."

And so it was. The group of three watched as the side hatch of the spaceship opened up and humaniod figure in a long, red duster climbed out.

Tony turned to Bruce, face expressionless, and said, "It's Han Solo. Bruce, Unleash the Hulk."

"Uh no," Bruce said, ignoring the startled-looking Natasha standing behind them. "But I guess we expected Star Trek and got Star Wars instead."

"Oh look, someone else is coming out..." Tony said, squinting as the very human-looking duster-clad guy held out a hand to someone coming out of the ship. "Uh, she- uh, she's green. Interesting interpretation of Princess Leia."

The green-skinned, pink-haired woman ignored the hand being offered to her by her companion and leaped the 8 feet to the ground without hesitating. The man that followed her was even more bizarre. Completely shirtless, the man's skin color with dark and difficult to determine, but the red tatoos covering his body were easy enough to make out. Strangely enough, he was also holding a large potted plant. However, he handed it off to the other man as he climbed to the planet's surface. Last, but not least, a raccoon scrambled out of the cockpit and the spaceship closed behind it.

"Um," Bruce turned helplessly toward Tony, who looked like he wasn't doing much better than his science bro. "The raccoon is walking."

"I know." Tony said, staring silently at said walking raccoon.

"He's wearing little clothes," Bruce continued.

"I know."

"He's..."

"Robotic, do you think?" Tony looked over to us science buddy desperately.

Bruce knew that Tony, despite previous encounters with alien-life, wanted to believe they were still alone in the universe. Mostly, the good doctor assumed, because he was still traumatized by his romp outside of Earth's territory. Of course, this could all possibly be solved with some decent therapy. Therapy that didn't involve spilling his problems to Bruce who was not that kind of doctor.

"Uh, sure? You would know better than me. Looks like the movements are a little too smooth to be animatronics though."

"Still," Tony sniffed. "Either way, a poor man's chewbacca."

"Right."

Then they were interrupted by a wave and a greeting from the most human-looking member of the bunch.

"Hey there!" the Han Solo-type called with a big grin on his face as the group stopped a handful of paces away from them. "Uh, hi. Nice to meet you...uh?"

Han was clearly fishing for some names. Bruce and Tony shared a look before Tony volunteered himself to be the voice of their little welcoming committee.

"Tony Stark, nice to meet you too," Tony offered, giving him a sarcastic salute. "This here is my friend, Dr. Banner."

Tony clapped Bruce on the shoulder hard enough to make him wince a little, but Bruce managed to give them a quick nod.

"And this is the lovely Agent Romanov."

Tony gestured toward Natasha who was doing her creepy stare. Well, Tony thought it was creepy anyway. Mostly because it looked like she was trying to be friendly.

"Nice to meet you as well," Natasha went a step farther than her fellow Avengers and held out her hand. Han Solo grinned even wider, which Tony thought was impossible, and stepped forward to take it, despite the wary looks his companions were throwing his way.

"Awesome. Agent like James Bond?" he asked, shaking her hand briskly. Natasha let out a genuine-sounding chuckle, much to Tony's shock, and shook her head.

"Not quite, but close enough I guess."

"Cool."

He took his hand back, and hooked his thumbs into his belt loops as he looked curiously over at the goons in the background and then back at the three avengers currently present.

"Peter," the green-lady whispered harshly, glaring at their spokesperson who apparently had the super alien name of 'Peter'. Seriously, Tony thought to himself, were they even trying.

"Wha-" the guy looked back at the green woman and then back at the resident earthers. "Oh, yeah. Sorry. Peter Quill, also known as Star Lord."

'Peter' even copied Tony's sarcastic and half-hearted salute, although it seemed to be a lot less sarcastic when he did it.

"Gamora," the green lady identified herself, and Tony was glad that someone from the group at a name that sounded a bit more alien.

"Drax," the large, bald guy said, his voice deep and yet strangely soft at the same time. "And this is Groot."

This time, the three avengers (and the former agents behind them) could only stare as what they thought was a house-plant, waved at them cheerfully.

"Groo," it said.

"Ummm," Bruce said under his breath, eyes almost as wide as Tony's.

"Rocket," the surly-looking raccoon added right before he spat on the tarmac. "Happy now? We're all introduced. Now can we get to the point?"

"Rocket," Peter whisper-scolded the raccoon.

"What?"

"What he means to say," Gamora intervened, taking a step forward and looking painfully earnest. "Is that we come to bring you news from the rest of the galaxy."

"Yeah," Peter seemed to re-take the reins of the conversation, looking more serious than he had before. "We heard you had an invasion not too long ago, and considering some of the other events happening in the galaxy, we- uh, thought we'd get Earth caught up."

"Sorry, not to be rude or anything," Tony interrupted. Natasha and Bruce involuntarily rolled their eyes as far back as they were able. "But you don't exactly look alien or anything. I mean, not that it means much I guess, our resident alien looks like he belongs on Babe watch, but you have a pretty normal name too."

The big bald dude, Drax or whatever, mouthed the word 'babe watch' under his breath curiously, but everyone mostly ignored him.

"Oh, yeah," Peter said, looking a little sheepish, as he rubbed the back of his head. "I'm originally from Earth. Left in '88 though and I kind of haven't been back since."

"Oh, so you're human?" Bruce asked, looking a little confused, but also a little relieved. "And the rest of you...?"

"I am Zehoberian," Gamora informed them. "The last of them."

"Saiunthi," Drax stated. "Not the last of."

"I'm just Rocket," the raccoon insisted. "One of a kind. Groot over there is a Flora Colossus. Or whatever."

"Really, he doesn't look that colossal to me," Tony quipped, but regretted it when the raccoon snarled at him. He really didn't want to get a rabies shot.

"He's still growing," Peter offered, trying to placate both the Earthlings curiosity and Rocket's temper. "Uh, I'm only half-human, if that helps. Don't know what my dad is though."

"Okay, Peter half-human," Tony said. "So, what's going on in the rest of the universe?"


	5. Ooh, That's Shiny

"Um, do you really want to do this here?" Peter asked as he looked pointedly around at the barren airstrip. "It's not exactly a short story."

Tony looked over to Bruce and then to Natasha, silently asking what their next course of action should be.

"That can be arranged," Natasha told them. "Stark, would you like to use the Tower?"

Tony thought about it for a second then shrugged.

"Why not?" he said. "It's as good a place as any. And there's the extra advantage of Thor knowing where it's located."

"Thor?" Gamora questioned.

"Yup," Tony said, making the end of the word really pop. "Hails from Asgard, may or may not be next in line. Ever heard of him?"

"More or less," Gamora said coolly.

"Pfft, who cares about Asgard?" Rocket scoffed. "Practically the back end of the universe really. Keeps to themselves and they still ride around on horses."

"I do not know much about Asgard and its territories," Drax admitted. "My people live on the edge of Kree and Xandarian space."

"Uh," Peter said intelligently.

"Don't even bother, Quill," Rocket said. "We know you don't know politics. Even if your own damn home planet is smack in the middle of Asgardian space. Oh, hey, technically this Thor guy would be your future ruler or something? Right? Maybe you can pay some, I dunno, fealty or whatever."

It was hard to miss the dark looks not only Peter, but the rest of the humans present, were sending Rocket. None of them appreciated anyone implying that some aliens they almost never heard of be their governing body.

"That aside," Gamora interjected quickly. "I would like to speak to Thor, if there is a chance."

"Uh, sure," Bruce said, although the whole group seemed slightly taken aback by the request. "Can we ask why?"

"The subject is a personal one I believe," Gamora told them, but not unkindly. "If he chooses to share what I have to say to him, that is his decision."

"Fair enough," Bruce responded.

The rest of the Guardians looked questioningly at their resident assassin, but she refused to look at them and instead stubbornly stared straight ahead.

"Well then," Tony said, trying to break up the awkward silence. "Let's get you guys over to the Tower. I guess I'll put on the suit and lead you guys there. Bruce you want to go back with Agent Romanov here?"

"Uh, sure," Bruce said, looking from the strange new group to Tony who was opening the trunk of his car.

"Suit?" Peter asked curiously, watching as Tony pulled some strange contraption of metal from the car.  
"Oh yeah, you've been gone since the dark ages," Tony said as he made a few elegant gestures with his hands. To the surprise of the half-human and the rest of his crew, the metal bits jolted to life and assembled themselves around the short, middle-aged human. "Things have gotten a little more advanced in the past few decades."

"Oh my god," Rocket said, looking at the machinery that he didn't think humans were capable of. "I need it. Quill, I need that. Now."

"No you don't," Peter leaned down and whispered furiously.

"Yes, I do. That looks like a prosthetic. A very shiny one that he clearly doesn't even need. Actually I think I want it more than him," Rocket said, looking at the armor adjusting itself to Tony's body. "In fact, I know I do."

"Rocket, now's not the time-"

"Peter, Rocket, get in the Milano," Gamora hissed at the both of them, her hands hovering dangerously over her wickedly sharp blades. "Now."

"Right, yup, we'll just follow you then, metal man," Peter said loudly as he straightened up and stretched as causally as he could.

"Metal man?" Stark's voice came out deeper and hollower when he was packed up tight in his metal suit. "It's Iron Man. Jesus kid, what's with all the lame names?"  
"Star Lord is a great name," Peter protested.

"Peter!" Gamora shouted at him, pausing midway while climbing the side of the Milano to do so.

"Coming," Peter said, jogging to catch up with the rest of his team.

* * *

Yeah, visiting Earth wasn't turning out quite like Peter thought it would.

"So, they seemed nice," Rocket offered as they flew through the sky toward the looming city in the distance. "Especially- what did he call himself? Iron Man? Is that a humie thing? Do you all like to give yourselves weird nicknames?"

"It's not- it's not a nickname," Peter said weakly. "And no? I don't think so? I haven't been on Earth for the past 26 years. I haven't seen another human in the past 26 years. There's a lot I don't know. Apparently."

"It's only natural," Gamora offered. "You were young when you were taken, were you not?"

"Uh, yeah," Peter said, trying to protest the whole 'taken' thing, but knowing that the Guardians were already well aware of his history with the Ravagers.

"It would be unreasonable for you to know what happened on your home planet while you were gone," Drax said reasonably.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Peter grumbled. "It's just- I don't know? Frustrating? It's my home planet, and I know less about it then I do about a dozen other planets. I just know a bunch of stuff from when I was a kid."

"And I'm guessing you weren't a whiz in school, so that's probably less than the average humie kid, right?" Rocket snickered.

"Shut up, Rocket," Peter said with no real heat.

"I am Groot!" Groot chimed in from where he was hanging out on the control panel between Rocket and Peter.

"So what? I don't want to exchange information about Quill's dumbass planet for news from the rest of the galaxy. I just want that guy's stuff," Rocket pointed covetously at 'Iron Man' who was doing some lazy loops in the clouds ahead.

"Why would Quill need to exchange this information?" Drax asked, confused. "He is of this planet, he has a right to reacquaint himself."

"Yeah, well, I don't think they're that enthused to have us here," Peter drawled, thinking back to their luke-warm welcome. Well, at least they didn't get shot at.

"They seemed reasonable to me," Drax said. "Although the mouthy, small one in the metal armor talks too fast to be trusted."

"Uh, right, Drax. Thanks," Peter said, trying not to roll his eyes like he knew Gamora and Rocket were doing. There was no reason to sink to their levels.

* * *

Tony sighed as he dropped down on the landing pad of he Tower and pointed the Milano toward the larger space on the roof.

"Jarvis, make sure our guests are directed to the right staircase. And put them in the Penthouse conference room," Tony said.

"Yes, sir," Jarvis said. "And shall I inform Agent Romanov and Dr. Banner to join you there?"

"Yup, as soon as they make it here. What's the ETA for Thor?" Tony said as he walked through the glass doors and up to the bar to pour himself a drink.

"Mr. Odinson and Dr. Foster are in en route and should be landing in Newark in less than an hour. Shall I arrange for them to be picked up and brought to the Tower?" Jarvis inquired.

"Yup, might as well. And jeez, New Jersey? Couldn't they get something landing in New York?"  
"I believe it was the earliest flight they could get, sir," Jarvis drawled in that almost sarcastic way of his.

"Well, they're almost here and that's the good thing, I guess," Tony mused as he swirled the dark amber liquid around in his glass. "Not that I don't believe these guys, but it'd be nice if the alien was here to confirm the other aliens' story, Jesus Christ, what is my life?"

"Our guests are in the stairwell heading toward the conference room," Jarvis informed him.

"Ugh, alright," Tony said, swishing down the rest of his drink in one go. "I'll get over there. Might as well be welcoming or something, right? Although if Star Lord calls me Metal Man one more times I won't be able to make any promises not to insult him."

"Noted, sir."


End file.
